426 



Notes 071 the Infliience 



[No. S6, 



tion, could not be witnessed without the greatest satisfaction. 

 Such was the prosperous condition of this charming country when 

 M. de Humboldt was sojourning in La Hacienda de Cura. 



After a lapse of twenty-two years it was my lot afresh to visit the 

 valley of Aragua. I fixed my residence in the small town of Maracay. 

 I soon found that, for many years, the inhabitants had been remark- 

 ing not only that the waters of the lake had ceased to subside, but 

 on the other hand, they affirmed they were very decidedly rising. 

 The lands which had been formerly occupied in the cultivation of 

 cotton were now submerged. The islands of Las Nuevas Apareci- 

 das, which had risen above water in the year 1796 had now become 

 shallows which were dangerous for navigation. The tongue of land 

 near to Cabrera, at the northern side of the valley, was now so nar- 

 row, that the smallest rise in the lake altogether inundated it : and 

 a steady breeze from the north-west was sufficient to submerge the 

 road which led from Maracay to Nueva Valencia. 



The fears, which for so long a time had annoyed the inhabitants 

 on its banks, were now altogether changed in their character : and 

 they no longer dreaded the entire disappearance of the lake. They 

 were now anxiously considering if these successive invasions of the 

 rising waters were about to overwhelm their properties, and those 

 who had explained the previous diminution by the existence of 

 subterranean canals were convinced they were now choked up 

 and that nothing would save them but re-opening these conduits 

 afresh. 



During the two and twenty years which had intervened, important 

 political transactions had occurred. Venezuela now no longer be- 

 longed to Spain. The smiling valley of Aragua had been the arena 

 of the most bloody contests, and war and death had desolated those 

 happy scenes, and greatly reduced the population. On the first cry 

 of independence, a number of slaves obtained their liberty by fight- 

 ing under the standard of the new republic. Its wide spreading 

 cultivation was neglected : the forest trees, so luxuriant within the 

 tropics, had again in a great measure usurped dominion over that 

 region which its inhabitants after a century of constant and painful 

 labour, had reclaimed. During the growing prosperity of the valley 

 of Aragua, the numerous streams which fed the lake had been 

 arrested and employed in innumerable irrigations, and their beds 



